Kia ora koutou

I start this week with a new staffing announcement – it’s my pleasure to announce that Jaz Crowther has been appointed into the permanent role as our Tautāwhi/Administrator. Jaz will work alongside the management team to support Library-wide activities and projects.  She comes to us from the SPCA Christchurch Centre which she has been working as their Foster and Volunteer Team Leader.  Jaz has a passion for supporting others and a wealth of experience of dealing with challenging situations. We look forward to welcoming Jaz to our team on Monday 3 April.

Also this week, I met with the VC for coffee.  Cheryl had much approbation for our services and the quality of our services.  And she is excited to see where we might go with future developments, particularly in terms of the digital experience and use of technology to enable learners to engage with library services and learning content.  I took the opportunity to underscore the importance for all people in our university community of human relationships, establishing connection, conveying manaakitanga and providing a sense of belonging.  From a ‘life cycle’ viewpoint, I stressed how crucial we believe this is to establish from the get-go, as one of the formative and first experiences of university life.  I also emphasised the drawcard that is the physical library, and how the presence of physical items does many valuable things for the in-person experience, including setting visual identity, shaping and defining spaces, and for some disciplines, conveying necessary and unique content. I did note though that we’re well underway with a multiyear project across PJH and EPS to reset the balance between physical library items on shelves, and flexible, welcoming learner spaces for both collaborative, social learning, and quiet, individual study.  The VC is eager to see what opportunities and ideas may be forthcoming in the future, both from us, and as a result of the external peer review.

With that in mind, we’re looking now at whom we might identify and approach for forming our peer review panel.  Aurelia and I have some kōrero with university colleagues lined up next week to explore further, and I am approaching university librarian colleagues who’ll be in attendance at the upcoming IFLA Library Buildings section conference at the University of Sydney in a fortnight.  I’m so looking forward to attending this myself and seeing first-hand where spatial developments and in-person user experiences are at the moment, in some of our counterpart Australian libraries (more on this, next week, and a presentation to follow once I’m back!).

On the topic of sector contacts and networks, Library Managers have this week started a Partnerships Register on Teams | Library All Staff (along the top menu bar).

Without being too onerous, this is an attempt to capture in one place all our wonderful collaborations, groups and partners so we can see whom to contact for certain things and so we know who might contact us for what reason.  I’m also really interested in the “visiting or hosting” column in this register and encourage you to fill it out as and when you host teams here, or visit other places.  This will mean we all have an awareness when visitors are in our midst, and can collectively manaaki them at our wonderful libraries!

Finally this week, I want to circle back to the 2023 Library Ops Plan and draw important links with Ngā Awa e Rua, which has recently been updated.  Specifically, we’ve removed years “2016-2020” – this is because the strategy remains relevant.  And we have updated the associated documentation to the latest versions of the Library Strategic Plan, Te Rautaki Māori and UC Values.

Please also take our Ops Plan as an evolving document, which needs to and will evolve and stretch as various themes take fuller shape, and as priorities shift over the year to come.  I feel keenly that some themes may not seem comprehensive enough at this early stage, or some initiatives may need and deserve extra thought and detail.  I encourage all to do this, with your manager as part of your Mahi Tahi, and/or amongst small (or large!) groups.  The management team and I are really keen to hear and share your feedback.  (Also noting we’ll have much more lead time, and a more inclusive, co-design process, for our 2024 Library Ops Plan!)

Happy weekend for now!

Kat